All four of the gun safety rules are equally important—they work in tandem, with intentional overlap for additional layers of safety. To review:
- All guns are always loaded.
- Never let the muzzle cover anything you’re not willing to destroy.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
- Be sure of your target and what’s beyond it.
When we’re at the range enjoying a day of shooting, following these rules is pretty straightforward. But things get hairy when we’re under stress or pressure, or when we’re adrenalized or excited. These are the moments when safety measures matter more than ever, and unfortunately, there’s one rule in particular that people tend to break when they’re all amped up: Rule 4.
This is an absolutely critical reminder: WE DO NOT SHOOT AT UNIDENTIFIED TARGETS!
There are dire consequences to breaking this rule, but somehow those consequences seem to fly out of our heads when we are under stress. We get hyper focused on what we’re doing or whatever we’re targeting, and it’s easy for our brain to fill in details based on what we think we see or hear. A few examples:
#1: You’re turkey hunting, leaning up against a tree. Maybe you’re calling in a gobbler, maybe you hear hens clucking, or maybe everything is quiet when there’s a sudden rustling in a bush, accompanied by turkey sounds and maybe even a flash of feathers. Do not shoot until you have seen the gobbler’s head (which is what you’re supposed to be aiming at, anyway). Tragically, turkey hunters have been shot in this manner, when they were sneaking up on what they thought was a bird but turned out to be a fellow hunter. Both hunters are expecting to see a turkey, but if they simply hear calls and see movement, it’s easy for their brain to say “it’s the turkey I’ve been waiting for!” and one of them shoots the other. Someone broke Rule 4 with tragic results.
By the way, this is why I’m not a big fan of the “reaping” technique. And don’t think that being on private land eliminates the possibility of other hunters showing up. People trespass all the time, unfortunately.
#2: You’re sound asleep when a noise from the living room wakes you up. Heart pounding, you grab your firearm and go investigate (first mistake; you should hunker down instead unless you have to get to a kid’s room). As you approach the top of the stairs, you see a shadowy figure stumbling through the living room below. It’s hard to make out in the dark (second mistake; you need a flashlight or a weapon-mounted light on your home defense firearm), but no one is supposed to be in your house. You’re panicked and scared, but let me remind you that you don’t know who you’re pointing a gun at right now. Until you do, you don’t shoot.
What if it’s your college-age kid coming home for a surprise visit? What if your middle schooler snuck out an hour ago and is now sneaking back in? What if your next-door neighbor got drunk and mistook your home for his own? What if the elderly woman three doors down is having a memory episode or started sleep-walking? Are these scenarios likely? Maybe not, but they’re certainly possible, and the point is, you absolutely cannot break Rule 4 by shooting at something you haven’t identified, no matter how scared you are. The fact that you might be legally justified to use deadly force (in a Castle Doctrine state) is cold comfort if you negligently harm someone who wasn’t actually a threat.
#3: You’re still-hunting for deer and after several long, cold hours, you spot the flick of a tail and a brown body between two trees. Finally, a deer! And it’s the perfect setup—it can’t see you make a move, because its head is behind a tree, and its vital zone is framed perfectly broadside for an easy shot.
The trouble is, in all your excitement, you forget that you haven’t actually identified what you’re shooting at yet. What if it’s a buck and you’re only allowed to shoot does in this part of the season? What if it’s a doe and the landowner has only given you permission to shoot cull bucks? Hunters make jokes about “ground checking” their deer (finding out what exactly it is after it’s been shot), but this is a terrible idea if you have any sort of restrictions or preferences on what you should be shooting. Yeah, it was definitely a deer, but you don’t know what kind. Shooting it is a violation of rule 4—albeit with less severe consequences than our previous two examples.
So let me say it again: WE DO NOT SHOOT AT UNIDENTIFIED TARGETS. Whether you’re hunting or defending your home, do not shoot at noise. Do not shoot at movement. Do not shoot at a shadow or at a piece of an animal if you haven’t seen the identifying parts yet.
When you have a potential live target in front of you, you’ll be excited or scared and definitely experiencing an adrenaline dump. But you still have to keep safety in mind and observe Rule 4: Be sure of your target and what’s beyond it.
